Answer:
Whenever the author uses the word <em>American </em>with quotation marks, it is to ridicule the Americanized people who started believing they are truly American and decided to leave behind their heritage and history. The author, Anzia Yezierska, talks about how she finally moved to America in order to pursue her dreams, happiness, and financial stability, and started living with and working for a family from the same Polish village she comes from. The family completely forgot about where they come from and pretended they were truly American, or rather "American" as Yezierska would put it.
Through this usage, we can see how quickly the author's thoughts and feelings about the "land of freedom" changed. She moved there in order to earn her own money and finally be happy. However, what she encountered was loneliness, misunderstanding, shame, hatred, inadequacy, etc. which she wasn't hoping for. Therefore, her feelings about America shifted from childish exhilaration towards sad acceptance and ultimately hatred.
